Severe turbulence on an Air Europa flight to Uruguay from Spain on Monday injured more than a dozen passengers, officials said, leaving several with neck and skull fractures, in at least the second case of serious injuries from turbulence worldwide in two months.
Flight UX045 made an emergency landing early Monday in the Brazilian coastal city of Natal after experiencing turbulence more than four hours after taking off from Madrid, according to flight data.
Some passengers hit their heads during the commotion, causing head, neck and chest injuries, according to Brazilian public health officials. Thirty-six passengers were treated for injuries and 23 were taken to a hospital, according to health and airport officials.
Some of the passengers who were treated suffered shock but no physical injuries, officials said. As of Monday afternoon, five passengers were still being treated, four of them in intensive care, officials said.
Passengers described a terrifying scene on the Boeing 787 aircraft, with some people flying through the cabin. Two women told the Telemundo news channel that at least one passenger jumped out of his seat and onto the roof of the plane.
Two videos posted on social media appear to show a man in an area near or above the plane’s bins and then being helped off by two other passengers. Other photos and videos showed broken roof panels and seats.
“One person got stuck between the plastic roof and the metal roof behind it, and had to get off,” Evangelina Saravia, a passenger from Uruguay, told Telemundo. “The same thing happened to a baby.”
Another passenger, Romina Apay, said she was sitting next to the man who was pushed onto the roof. “He flew and got stuck on the roof, in the bin — we couldn’t find him,” she told Telemundo. When the plane stabilized, he added, “people fell over the seats, over other people.”
It is relatively rare for turbulence to cause such serious injuries. Just 163 serious injuries from aircraft turbulence were recorded in the United States between 2009 and 2022, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
But Monday’s episode is the second such case in two months. In May, a 73-year-old man died when the Singapore Airlines flight he was traveling on experienced severe turbulence. More than 70 people on that flight were injured.
The disorder itself is common and typically not dangerous. It is generally caused by changes in wind speed and direction, including storms and currents, and can result in sudden changes in an airplane’s height and speed. Passengers not wearing seat belts can be injured because the turbulence can lift them out of their seats.
Recent studies suggest that climate change may make turbulence more frequent because increased carbon dioxide emissions can affect air currents.
